The Social Responsibility Marketing Strategy - Essay Example

?Running head: POSITIONING AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY: YO SUSHI RESTAURANT Positioning an Social Responsibility: Yo Sushi Restaurant Insert Insert Course Title Insert Instructor’s Name 10 March 2011 Positioning and Social Responsibility: Yo Sushi Restaurant Introduction Every organization regardless of whether it is profit oriented or not-for-profit requires planning and coordination of its activities to ensure its ultimate success. Strategic decision making of these establishments is very important. The success or failure of a company depends on the different strategic decisions, which the management of the company takes. The strategic decisions may be in advertising, personnel management, branding; in which case, they enable the company to manage its resources to ensure its profitability in the long-term or in the short-term. Moreover, the strategic decisions may be aimed towards the customers of the business organization or the employees of the organizations. Strategic decisions aimed at the employees of the organization attempt to improve the productivity of the employees and hence lead to an increase in quantity or quality of the products produced. However, most of the strategic decisions that are aimed at the customers are usually aimed at increasing the sales of the products of the company, which the customer makes. Several strategies may be employed to help increase the sales by the customers. In addition, the company may undertake measures aimed at improving its image, which will therefore lead to improved sales and customer loyalty to the company. The company may base improved image of the company on the quality of the products, which they offer, a wide range of products or corporate social responsibility of the company. One of the strategic planning decisions, which business organizations make, is the positioning strategy of the company. Positioning strategy Positioning strategy is a strategy that different companies make to improve their perception. Thus, it can be said to be a psychological approach to marketing. Positioning strategy is mainly aimed at making the customers prefer the products of a certain company as opposed to those from its main competitors (Hiam, 2009, p. 36). The positioning strategies of the company may be directed either towards the customer or towards the competitor. However, brand-positioning strategies can generally be classified into the following categories: Using product characteristics or customer benefits Price- quality approach Use or application of the product Product-user strategies Products class strategies Cultural symbol of the product Strategies aimed at competitor (Batra, p. 205) Using product characteristics or customer benefits This is the most used positioning strategy; it links a certain product with a certain characteristic, which is generally of great importance to the customer. The company may stress the durability, safety, or reliability of its products. However, a company may also use two or more different characteristics to build the brand image of the product. Companies that use two or more product characteristics to build the image of the brand risk confusing the image of the brand, which affects the customers’ perception of the brand (Batra, p. 208). Yo sushi helps in attracting customers to its restaurants using the claim that its food is fresh (company website – Yo! Sushi). Emphasis on the quality of food that is served in the restaurants portrays the image that the food is of higher quality and safe to the customers who may it. In addition, Yo sushi emphasizes on the speed in which the restaurant is able to serve its customers. The restaurant serves the food from conveyor belt. Yo sushi claims that its food is fast, fun and fresh (company website – Yo! Sushi). Due to the fact that a belt would definitely move at a fast speed the company in effect portrays to its customers that its services are very fast and hence the customers would not waste time waiting for the food to be served. This therefore helps in attracting customers into the hotel Positioning by price and quality Companies may use the quality of a product to help build their image. The company can therefore have different products that are sold at a higher price, which emphasizes the quality of the products. In addition, the company can charge lower prices for products that would help in attracting sales. However, a company can also use the lower price of the product to show that the product is of inferior quality and hence attract sales to the products that are more expensive and hence are perceived to have high quality (Bantra, p. 211). Yo Sushi uses this strategy to help improve its image. The company regularly offers the food in the company at reduced prices. In fact, in the month of January the company ran a promotion in which it cut the price of food in its restaurant by 40 percent. This helps increase the sales of the restaurants (Company website – Yo! Sushi). Positioning by product user A company may attempt to improve the image of a certain product by associating it with a certain class of users. A good example of the application of this strategy is in cosmetic companies where certain products are associated with a certain model or celebrity, which in turn helps build the image of the company (Bantra, p. 211). Yo! Sushi has created the Yo! Fun Club (Company website – Yo! Sushi). This shows that it is associated with young people who like a fun filled environment and are generally knowledgeable on the communication technology since the club is online. Product class strategy A company may use the strategy that tries to portray its products as of a higher class as compared to the other products from its main competitors (Govoni, 2004, p. 162). In this case, Yo sushi uses this strategy to portray its products as being of a higher class, for instance, the services offered in the restaurants, the conveyor belts and the robots show that the products of the company are of a higher class compared to those of the competitors. The innovations show that the services offered by the company incorporate technology into its activities and is therefore reliable. Cultural symbol of the product Brands can help developing their image by developing ideas, which try to show how people should live, look, and think. By doing this, the brands become symbols associated with certain cultures. The brands may relate to certain cultures or individuals in the society (Cayla & Arnould, 2008, p. 90). In global marketing, this type of branding tries to associate the product a certain type of product with a certain global culture. In this type of strategy certain signs for example language, aesthetics and themes that are associated with a certain culture are used to identify the brand (Kotabe & Helsen, 2009, p. 158). Examples of companies that have successfully used this type of strategy include Sony, which has formulated its product to reflect youthfulness. Yo Sushi has effectively used this strategy to help position itself in the market. The company sells Japanese dishes, which are widely liked by people. In addition, the company decorates all its restaurants to fit the conventional Japanese setting. The company mostly targets youthful, young women who like to be in an environment full of fun (Company website – Yo! Sushi). In addition, the company has created an online customer club, which is known as Yo! Love Club, whose members receive regular newsletters via e-mail of the developments in the restaurant. Moreover, the members of the club can send comments to the company, which helps the company in catering for the needs of the customers by incorporating their views (company website – Yo! Sushi). Strategies aimed at competitor In this type of positioning strategy, the company adopts a strategy that tries to capitalize on the limitations of certain positioning strategies of the competitors. The companies may also adopt the positioning strategies of the competitors and make modifications on them to make them seem better that the competitor. Volvo, an automobile making company had achieved a good reputation by making safe cars. However, Subaru a competitor formulated a successful strategy that was aimed at the weaknesses of the rival, Volvo. It challenged the position of Volvo by stating: “Volvo has built a reputation for surviving accidents. Subaru has built a reputation for avoiding them; Subaru Legacy – we built or reputation by building a better car” (Yeshin, 2006, p. 206). Yo sushi does not use this strategy to help build its image. The company mainly uses the innovativeness of its products to help attract customers and build the brand image of the company. The company uses conveyor belts to serve its food and drinks are served by robots. In addition, the restaurants are generally more lively compared to those of its major competitors. Therefore, the company does not need to devise strategies that are aimed at the competitors; the innovativeness of its services helps build the image of the company. Social responsibility To respond to the customer demands, many companies have incorporated social responsibility into their strategic marketing planning processes. Social responsibility attempts to maximize a company’s impact on the society while minimizing the negative impacts it has on the society. Social responsibility attempts to improve the reputations of a company, which is vital to its marketing strategies. Generally, negative events in a company may affect the stakeholders of the company; it may lead to reduced productivity and morale of the workers. In addition, people who are not directly involved in negative activities of the company may also be influenced by the media highlight of the events of a certain company, which will make them change their perception of the company (Ferrell & Hartline, 2008, p. 61). The main dimensions of social responsibility are economic, ethical, and philanthropic. Economic dimension of the social responsibility refers to the fact that the company must ensure that its profits is reflected in the income of the employees or the dividends it gives to the shareholders of the company. In addition, the company must make sure that the profits of the company serve the people who live in the area where the company calls home (Ferrell & Hartline, 2008, p. 62). Yo sushi has not been successful in the implementation of this social responsibility marketing strategy. By using robots, the company employs less people in its establishments thus its profits is not passed down to the residents of the area in which it operates. For a company to have a good image in the society in which it operates it should have marketing conducts which are acceptable to the public, government regulators, private-interest group, competitors and the firm itself (Ferrell & Hartline, 2008, p. 62). Ignoring the ethical issues can result in reduced trust of the company by the customers and the eventual government intervention. Yo Sushi ensures that it sources its fish from suppliers who are recommended as they use favorable means of fishing. The suppliers catch only the fish, which is sustainable, and avoid fish that is not sustainable. In addition, most of the people usually check on the calories they take. Yo sushi has a small booklet which informs the customers on how much fat, salt or sugar is in the food which they serve (company website - Yo sushi). This helps in enabling the customers regulate the amount of calories which they take as too much of it may lead to obesity which is harmful to their health. Companies also use their philanthropic activities as a marketing tool, which helps to improve its image. The philanthropic activities of the company enable it to earn a good reputation among the employees of the company, public, and the company, which enable it to achieve good incomes in the long run (Ferrell & Hartline, 2008, p. 64). The philanthropic activities of the company include sponsoring certain important activities of the society in which it operates, giving donations to charitable groups or the needy in the society in which it operates. The company may either be directly involved in the philanthropic activities or it may form a separate entity (mostly a foundation going by the name of the company) to manage the philanthropic activities of the company. Yo sushi is currently not involved in any philanthropic activities. The company is using its finances to expand its activities into other areas. The company also plans to diversify its brand name to include hotels, nightclubs, and cafes. Yo sushi has not been able to successfully use the social responsibility marketing strategy to help build its brand image. The company has been able to tackle the ethical issues in its activities. However, it has not been able to take measures in other areas of social responsibility. The company has concentrated on the other positioning and marketing strategies to improve its brand image. However, to improve the image of the company the company should be involved in some philanthropic activities, which involve the youth. The company may offer scholarships to the youth in the areas where it has it operations, offer donations to charitable organizations involved in environmental conservation or even undertake campaigns aimed at conserving the environment. The activities which are aimed at conserving the environment would greatly help in building its image as fish, which the company uses in most of its has been a subject of great debate concerning the sustainability of some fishing activities particularly those of endangered species such as some types of tuna. Reference Batra, .Advertising management. New Delhi: Pearson Education India. Cayla, J. & Arnould, E.J., 2008. A Cultural approach to marketing in the global market place. Journal of international marketing. Vol. 16, No. 4, pp 88 – 114. American Marketing Association. (Online). Available from: http://www.juliencayla.com/JIM.pdf (Accessed March 10, 2011). Ferrell, O.C. & Hartline, M.D., 2008. Marketing strategy. OH: Cengage Learning. Govoni, N.A.P., 2004. Dictionary of marketing communications. CA: SAGE Publications Ltd. Hiam, A., 2009. Marketing for Dummies. NJ: For Dummies. Kotabe, M. & Helsen, K., 2009. The SAGE handbook of international marketing. CA: SAGE Publications Ltd. Yeshin, T. 2006. Advertising. OH: Cengage Learning EMEA. Read More